Body

The days are getting shorter, temperatures are dropping, and the cold and flu season is beginning. Many people have started taking vitamin C tablets as a precautionary measure. But research has shown that vitamin supplements do not provide nearly as much protection as other measures, like frequently washing your hands – and that high doses can even be harmful. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has published information and a quiz on the subject of prevention, helping to separate widespread myths from facts.

A new gene that may confer susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis has been identified by Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) researchers and their collaborators in The Netherlands, Indonesia, United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation.

In the current j PLoS Genetics, the scientists report that the gene, named Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8), which had been previously shown to recognize some factors from viruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), also has a probable role in human susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.

Scientists from the Universities of Bath and Exeter have developed a rapid new way of checking for toxic genes in disease-causing bacteria which infect insects and humans. Their findings could in the future lead to new vaccines and anti-bacterial drugs.

They studied a bacterium called Photorhabdus asymbiotica, which normally infects and kills insects, but which can also cause an unpleasant infection in humans.

A new tool for investigating the rice genome has been developed by researchers at UC Davis led by Pamela Ronald, professor of plant pathology. The inexpensive, publicly-available rice DNA microarray covers nearly all the 45,000 genes in the rice genome. Details are published this week in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.

Patients with overactive bladders who took part in a multi-centre study to measure the effectiveness of solifenacin noticed improvements in as little as three days, according to research published in the November issue of BJU International.

Just over a hundred urology centres from 14 countries took part in the study of 863 patients led by Professor Linda Cardozo from the Department of Urogynaecology at King's College Hospital in London.

Britain's post-war baby boomers, associated throughout their lives with social change, are failing to break new ground in their approach to growing old.

An international study led by University of Leicester researchers has determined that vaccination will be the best way to protect people in the event of the next influenza pandemic – but that each person would need two doses.

In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine published on October 9, researchers from the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester report on a study carried out at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Arthritis is the nation's most common cause of disability. The number of adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis is projected to increase to 67 million by 2030, and a large proportion of U.S. adults will limit their activity as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, in a new study, University of Missouri researchers found that adults with arthritis who received exercise interventions that included educational components significantly increased their physical activity levels and experienced improvements in pain and physical functioning.

A 30 percent increase in chronic kidney disease over the past decade has prompted the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS) to issue for the first time a separate report documenting the magnitude of the disease, which affects an estimated 27 million Americans and accounts for more than 24 percent of Medicare costs. The USRDS is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

CHICAGO -- What's the worst that could happen after eating a slice of pepperoni pizza? A little heartburn, for most people.

But for up to a million women in the U.S., enjoying that piece of pizza has painful consequences. They have a chronic bladder condition that causes pelvic pain. Spicy food -- as well as citrus, caffeine, tomatoes and alcohol-- can cause a flare in their symptoms and intensify the pain. It was thought that the spike in their symptoms was triggered when digesting the foods produced chemicals in the urine that irritated the bladder.

A normal developmental protein that sometimes goes awry has been implicated in breast cancer. This discovery indicates the mechanism by which inappropriate expression of the Notch pathway may contribute to breast cancer.

The breast cancer team at WEHI, led by Drs Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman from the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium, have identified important roles for Notch genes in regulating breast development and function.

The 3-D structure of the virus, known as Seneca Valley Virus-001, reveals that it is unlike any other known member of the Picornaviridae viral family, and confirms its recent designation as a separate genus "Senecavirus." The new study reveals that the virus's outer protein shell looks like a craggy golf ball¬—one with uneven divets and raised spikes—and the RNA strand beneath it is arranged in a round mesh rather like a whiffleball.

Proteins found in sperm are central to understanding male infertility and could be used to determine new diagnostic methods and fertility treatments according to a paper published by the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics (MCP). The article demonstrates how proteomics, a relatively new field focusing on the function of proteins in a cell, can be successfully applied to infertility, helping identify which proteins in sperm cells are dysfunctional.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Moderate physical activity during pregnancy does not contribute to low birth weight, premature birth or miscarriage and may actually reduce the risk of complications, according to a Michigan State University professor who contributed to the U.S. government's first-ever guidelines on physical activity.

CHICAGO – Northwestern Memorial's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is one of seven programs in the country participating in new study aimed at improving the heart's pumping action and helping to manage congestive heart failure symptoms. The US PARACHUTE trial tests the effectiveness of placing a small device in the left ventricle, or main pumping chamber of the heart. Northwestern Memorial physicians recently implanted the first study participant with the device; the individual is the sixth person in the United States to undergo the procedure.